Chapter Seven
"Mom?" I call, creeping along the hallway.
I step over a few of the unpacked boxes, the floorboards creaking loudly underneath me. Why wasn't my mother answering? Why wasn't she home?"
"Mom?" I call again, louder this time.
At the end of the hallway, I turn, looking up the staircase. The dim, pale light casting in from the tall window of the hallway emits a soft, ethereal glow and I tread carefully up the staircase, not wanting to trip or fall. I can tell the light is on in the bathroom through the small crack in the door and I automatically assume my mother is in there. There's a faint rustling noise and I pause for a moment, taking a deep breath before pushing the door open.
My mother is lying fully clothed in the bathtub, her brown eyes wide open, unseeing, her head lolled to the side. Everything in the bathroom is still and I start to panic, wondering if my mother is breathing or not. Her chest doesn't seem to rise or fall with an exhale or inhale and when I inch closer to her, I see that the flesh on her neck is torn apart, ripped open, red everywhere.
No, I say to myself. No, she can't be dead. No!
Blood starts running down her neck like a teardrop and it falls into the bathtub and I watch as the water slowly grows redder with every drop. I slide down to the white tiled flooring next to her, and clasp my hands between my knees. I watch her for a long moment. Who did this to her? Did he do this to her?
"Ruby?"
Susie.
I scramble to my feet, wanting to hide the heartbreaking sight from my little sister and when I turn to face her, I realize it's too late. She stares down at her mother, her eyes wide with fear. Her lips quiver, her small body twitches and I watch in horror as a growl issues from her chest, between exposed fangs. She turns away from me, cowering in the corner, her body trembling, and her curly hair draped over her face like a curtain.
"Susie?" I whisper, inching closer toward her. "Susie, it's all right..."
She moves her hair out of her eyes with a small forefinger and her eyes are bloodshot, red, murderous, an imitation of David's. Another growl issues from between her exposed fangs and before I can register what is happening, she scampers toward me, her teeth plunging into my neck and the pain is excruciating.
I scream...
I wake up with a start, my body trembling.
I pull the covers away from me, wrapping my arms around my knees instead for warmth. I didn't want to believe it. I didn't want to believe anything. My mother couldn't be dead; she couldn't have killed herself because of our absence. And Susie, Susie couldn't be one of them...
The very thought of vampires – I shiver at the term – existing among the good people of Santa Carla seemed surreal to me. The fact that I was sleeping in their lair, was another thing that I just couldn't seem to grasp. Surely vampires were only mythological, something that didn't truly exist?
I couldn't even wrap my head around it when David explained it to me after scaring me to death last night...
"Remember what happened to that kid back at your house?" I had nodded and then David continued, "You saw what we did, and now you know what Susie does."
I shuddered as my mind dredged up unpleasant images of poor Jeremy, his face when the boys were attacking him, the blood... I couldn't imagine Susie doing that to anyone. She was just a little girl, after all. She couldn't possibly understand what's going on or the changes she would be going through right now.
"She'd never -" I whispered in frustration, not wanting to believe it.
"Want to bet on it?" Paul said laughing, before slipping an unlit cigarette between his lips and cupping his hands together, lighting the end with a match.
But wasn't that all the more reason for Susie to do it? If she was too young to comprehend the pain she was inflicting on the people around her, the people that David beckoned her and cajoled her into hurting... No, I'd said firmly to myself. It didn't mean she was a killer, a monster – like David - if she did it without really knowing the consequences of the actions she was making.
After seeing her play Simon Says with David in the bar, how she so willingly obeyed his commands and went along with it, would she really surrender and give in that easily? Would she really be capable of hurting another human being so cruelly like David and the others could?
It upset me that I didn't know the answer...
It upset me that I didn't know for certain if David was lying or not – about Susie and vampires, and my mother's suicide – everything...
The one thing that stuck with me throughout the night was what Susie had said, about someone named Max. Who was this Max, who David apparently said to Susie was our new father now? I wondered what he looked like, if he was as frightening as David.
Sunlight is leaking through the crack in the cave and I found that today I longed to be by myself, to fill my lungs with the refreshing, sunny morning air and bathe in the peaceful knowledge that I wouldn't have to face the boys for another eight hours, at the very least. I wanted to clear my head of all of these unanswered questions but, most of all; I wanted to meet this Max man. I wanted to know why he chose Susie, what part he had to play with David and the boys... Still, for now I would have to settle with the fact that I couldn't know right now.
I climb out of the bed, the springs squeaking loudly as I do and then soon I am outside of the cave, the sun warm and soothing against my skin, the rocks on the beach clacking together with every step. I stare out at the water as I walk.
On the Boardwalk, there aren't many people wandering around at this time of the morning and I stand by the railings for a long moment, enjoying the warm sun. A man with black rimmed-glasses smiles warmly at me as he passes, a white, sandy-colored dog loping behind him on its leash, its furry head bowed and sniffing the pavement for leftover scraps of food.
"Thorn, come on, boy," the man calls and the dog scampers off over to his owner.
I start walking again slowly down the Boardwalk in the direction the man went, pausing as I see the doors of the old record store opening and eager customers beginning to flock their way in. I pause for a moment, conflicted. I think about going into the record store, trying to find those young boys from a few nights ago, who clearly seemed informed of vampires. But, then again, I didn't know if they only believed in the fabricated kind of vampires that you found in the comic books...
Making up my mind, I stroll slowly over to the record store, the rock music from the jukebox resounding wonderfully in my ears. A few customers are rummaging through the bins, their heads bopping happily along with the beat. I scan the room, feeling relieved as I see the boy with the red bandana, the one who had given Alex, Patrick's brother, the comic book on vampires. Surely they knew a lot about vampires then, right?
"You looking for a Punk record or something?" He asks when I nervously approach him. I realize he's clearly mistaken me for Alex's older sister or something of the sort. He obviously remembers me from before.
I shake my head. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you, if that's all right?" The other young boy from over the counter stares at me, glowering. It starts to make me feel uneasy. "You seem like someone who knows a lot about vampires, right?" I add, hopefully.
The boy wearing the red bandana looks distracted, preoccupied with unpacking a box and I contemplate maybe giving up, but then the boy over the counter says, "We pride ourselves on being the best experts on the vampires of Santa Carla." I glance over to find him no longer glowering, but eyeing me suspiciously. "What's it to you?" he asks, stepping out from the counter and clasping his hands together in a very serious manner.
"Well," I begin nervously, not knowing if they will take me seriously or not, "I'm kind of living with a house full of vampires..." I've seemed to capture the boy with bandanas attention now and he finally disregards unpacking the boxes, cocking his head to the side, listening. "And before you think I'm making this up, just hear me out here..." I plead.
The boy with the red bandana sighs loudly before finally swivelling around to face me. "What do you want to know?" he asks in that very deep, unnatural voice of his. "Alan and I are sort of Rambo slayers of the bloodsucker kind." He gestures toward the boy next to him with a hand, then to himself. "I'm Edgar."
Knowing their names, it placates me in an odd way.
"Well, how do you know if someone's a vampire?" I ask after a moment.
Alan looks at Edgar and shrugs. "Easy." He turns to look at me directly, his expression grim. "Do they sleep all day and are awake all night?"
I think it through for a moment. Susie certainly has changed sleeping patterns since staying with the boys. "Yes," I answer after a moment.
Edgar moves to the side of the counter, bending down and picking up another box. He heaves it onto the counter before joining in enthusiastically. "Are they afraid of sunlight?" he asks.
This question baffles me and I am quiet for a moment, contemplating. I'd never seen Susie's reaction to being directly under the sunlight before. I'd never seen Marko, Paul, Dwayne or David's reaction for that matter, either. I wondered idly what would happen if they did – would they be terrified? Would it burn them or turn them to ash?
"I-I think so..." I say at last, frowning.
Alan nods his head fervently. "Then yes, they are bloodsuckers all right."
It didn't seem to add up at all. I always presumed vampires were something you read in horror comics...
"Do they have a rotten temper lately?" Edgar asks suddenly, and I stare at him blankly for a moment.
I hesitate. "No." Susie didn't seem any different in that area. "Is it common for vampires to have a rotten temper?"
Alan and Edgar both laugh, somehow not humorously. "You betcha," they both say in unison.
I nod, feeling oddly relieved by this knowledge. "That certainly explains why David is so ill-humoured..." I say, without really thinking of the consequences.
Edgar and Alan look confused. "Who?"
"Never mind." I turn away from them, thinking. Perhaps it was nothing personal then, the way David acted toward me? Maybe it was just something that came natural to vampires, just like my hatred of him... I have a sudden idea. "What's something that prevents a vampire from attacking you?"
But Edgar answered too quickly. "That's easy. You take a few gloves of garlic, tuck it under your shirt, and it'll ward him away for good..."
"Garlic?" I enquire, intrigued now. "Why garlic?"
"It's simple," Edgar says, shrugging. He starts unpacking one of the boxes, removing some of the new glossy records. "Garlic reeks as bad as the vampire himself. It'll deter him from feasting his fangs on you and, let's face it, if you're in company of vampires often; you're practically a wet tampon waiting to be sucked..."
I consider. "And it really works?" I ask quietly.
"Of course," Edgar booms, a little louder than necessary. A few customers look in our direction, inquisitively. He leans closer toward me, lowering his voice. "It's an old trick in the book used centuries ago..."
Garlic? Hmm.
"How many bloodsuckers are we talking here?" Alan asks after a moment of silence, and I turn to look at him.
"Four or five."
They both exchange a look, raising their eyebrows, incredulous. "Holy shit," Edgar says breathlessly, shaking his head.
I'm suddenly nervous at their reaction. "What?" I ask, chewing on a hangnail.
Edgar snorts derisively, turning his head back to his work and starting to pile up the records alphabetically. "That's a shitload of garlic," he says in a hushed, hoarse whisper.
"Well, do you know where I can buy a 'shitload' of garlic from?" I ask, my voice trembling for some reason.
Edgar turns his face back to mine, scared and excited. "There's a little grocery store on the right end of the Boardwalk." I mentally picture the Boardwalk and faintly remember the tiny grocery store where Susie and I had went for supplies before the boys ended up cornering us on their bikes ending our scheme to escape to Florida.
I nod, about to walk out the record store when Alan catches my arm, to my surprise. "Be careful," he says with a note of warning in his voice. He looks genuinely worried and it startles me.
Careful of what?
If garlic was the only solution to keep David away from Susie and me, to keep him from hurting me, then I would gladly risk anything. My body feels lighter, as though a heavy weight that has been bearing me down has been lifted, when I walk into the grocery store.
I start preparing to put my plan into action...